Baseball: Cougars Rally to Pull Off Late Win, Advance to Second Round of Northern Region Tournament

It took four pitchers and five innings, but the Oakton Cougars finally took the lead and held it to defeat the Mount Vernon Majors 9-6 in the first round of the Northern Region tournament Saturday.

With the Concorde District Champion Cougars not at their best for the majority of the game, the Majors took advantage and went up 2-0 in the first inning, with the first strike coming in the form of a solo homer from leadoff batter George Palacio. Later in the inning, Victor Lenske hit an RBI double to score Collin Bowyer, who had reached base on an error with two outs in the inning.

The Majors built on their lead in the third inning with an RBI line drive single from Collin Bowyer to put the Majors up 3-0.

In the bottom of the third inning, Luke Willis — who walked as leadoff batter — stole second base and advanced to third on a fielder's choice ground ball from Chris Hanson to then steal home on the first pitch to batter . Carroll kept the inning going with a double, but a groundout ended the inning in the next at-bat.

The Majors added two more runs to their lead in the fourth, leaving Justin Janis, Oakton's head coach, wondering when the Cougars would show the fighting spirit that has become almost a signature for the team this season.

"We've been down this road before and we didn't want to panic," Janis said. "And I don't think we did. I definitely wish we had sharpened our focus a little earlier and flipped the switch."

The Cougars answered with three of their own in the bottom of the fourth inning. It started with a solo home run from Austin Lamon. After a scary moment where Chad Carroll was hit by a pitch in the head, Carroll and the Cougars continued with Carroll stealing second and then Luke Willis hitting him home with a double to the center field wall.

In the next inning, the Cougars kept their rally going, scoring five runs — four on two outs. Aaron Rochkind drove in the first run in the inning with a groundout to score Brian Burns. Then with two outs, Austin Lamon reached first after being hit by a pitch to put runners at first and third.

Joey Bartosic kept the inning going with a line drive single to score Mason Hauser, who had earlier reached on an error, to bring the Cougars within a run of the Majors at 6-5.

Then Chad Carroll showed just how well he recovered from the hit in the head with a three-run homer that drove in what would be the game-winning run. And just for a little insurance, Willis hit a solo homer of his own to top the Cougars off at 9-6.

"Really the big at-bat was Joey's, where he hit someone in, got on base and allowed Chad to have another at-bat to keep the rally going," Janis said.

Carroll said he did not go into his last at-bat thinking he had to hit a home run, but he did know he had to keep the two-out rally going.

"I was just trying to put a good swing on one because I was having an off-game," Carroll said.

Regardless of his home run, he had confidence in his team's ability to bounce back.

"We've been down a lot before this season, and of all the teams I've been on, this team's the most calm when we're down because we have so much confidence in our bats," Carroll said.

The Cougars went through four pitchers — starter Andy Gross, then relievers Walker Webster, Taiyo Francis and Luke Willis.

The Cougars will face Lake Braddock in round two of the Northern Region tournament at 4 p.m. Monday at W.T. Woodson High School.